News about healthcare and medicine in China | An independent site by Michael Woodhead

Thursday, 1 May 2014

The top 8 medical news stories from China for Thursday 1 May

1. A person's blood group may influence their survival from cancer according to oncologists in Guangzhou. In a study
of patients with oesophageal cancer they found five year survival rates
were 50 % for patients with blood type A, 45% for type B, 51% for type
O, and 61% for type AB.

2. The incidence rate of type 1 diabetes is increasing at a rate of 14.2 % per year in Shanghai and if present trends continue, the number of new type 1 diabetes cases will double from 2016 to 2020, researchers say.

3. Chinese neurologists say people with atrial fibrillation may be able to avoid the need to take lifelong anticoagulant drugs to prevent stroke by using a minimally invasive surgery procedure called left atrial appendage closure (using a system created by Boston Scientific Corp - could be an advertorial).

4. The introduction of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme
(NCMS) has increased access to healthcare for elderly people, but not
had any effect on their overall health, a study from Nanjing University
shows. The study
found that the health cover did not affect overall health status and
did not reduce the out-of-pocket spending of elderly people.

5. An outbreak of hand, foot, and mouth disease that hospitalised
1844 children in Central China from 2011 to 2012 was caused by a mixture
of co-circulating coxsackievirus A16 (CVA16). and enterovirus I71
(EV71). This may have contributed to the genomic recombination between
the pathogens say researchers from Wuhan University.

6. The whistleblower 'Corridor Doctor' doctor of Mianyang who worked in a corridor after being suspended from her job for two years, has now been sacked.
Authorities said Dr Lan Yuefeng had been absent for almost two years
and had been disruptive and uncooperative. Her colleagues rejected
charges of overservicing at the hospital and went on strike claiming she
had made false allegations and damaged their reputation.

7. Health authorities in Beijing are urging adults to have measles vaccination after a surge in cases in thecity. They say there has been a spike in cases in the past two months, and more than half of the infected are in adults, probably because protection from childhood vaccination has waned.

8. Radiologists in Sichuan claim that resting-state functional MRI could be useful in providing early and accurate diagnosis of ADHD. In a study published in Radiology, Dr Qiyong Gong of the West China Hospital of Sichuan University, showed that the boys with ADHD had altered structure and function in certain areas of the brain, such as the orbitofrontal cortex and the globus pallidus. that play in executive inhibitory control - the ability to control inappropriate behaviors or responses.